Teachable Moments: Wrecks lead to driver's licensing, tests

10:30 PM,
Mar. 25, 2013

In the United States, New York City and Chicago first required driving tests in 1899 to obtain a license.

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In 1934, after a record year of accidents, the British Parliament passed the Road Traffic Act, which required residents to pass a driving test before being granted the license to drive.

The Daily Mail recalled the genesis in a 2010 article:

"The flamboyant Leslie Hore-Belisha, newly appointed Minister of Transport in Ramsay Macdonald's national government, was crossing Camden High Street in North London when he ran slapbang into one of the increasing menaces of the age. ...